FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OCTOBER 19, 2021

UMWA strongly supports Freedom to Vote Act

[TRIANGLE, VA.] United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts issued the following statement today:

"It is critical for the future of our democracy that Congress pass the Freedom to Vote Act as soon as possible. Even though there has never been any credible evidence that anything is wrong with our election system, too many states are taking steps to strip away the right to vote from our fellow citizens. Congress must step in to defend it.

"When states make it harder for minorities and senior citizens to vote, that is wrong. When states restrict the ability to cast mail ballots, they threaten the rights of active-duty military personnel. When states make rules that enable one political party to throw out election results simply because it doesn't like them, that starts us down the path to tyranny. Yet that is what we are seeing happen in state after state.

"These actions by state legislatures around the nation destroy the notion of free and fair elections that generations of Americans have fought to protect and threaten to further divide and weaken our nation. It is healthy in a democracy for citizens to have different political points of view. It will destroy that democracy if we build up those differences to the point where we allow politicians to manipulate our right to vote and how we count the results.

"These anti-American state laws cannot stand, and I urge the Senate to take all steps needed to pass the Freedom to Vote Act tomorrow - including modifying the filibuster rules if that is what it takes. The long-term threat to our fragile democracy is too great to do anything else.

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